Uruguay

• Thursday, June 4th 2026 - 15:32 UTC

  Uruguay's anti-graft body faces Congress as opposition alleges 'political use' in Orsi case

  

  The directorate of Uruguay's Transparency and Public Ethics Board (Jutep) appeared on Thursday before the Chamber of Deputies' Security and Coexistence Commission, amid the controversy over President Yamandú Orsi's purchase of a Hyundai Santa Fe. National Party deputy Pablo Abdala, who requested the summons, accused the body of “political use.”

• Tuesday, June 2nd 2026 - 21:14 UTC

  Montevideo's Carrasco airport to fly to 15 destinations in June with 158 weekly flights

  

  Carrasco International Airport, in the department of Canelones, will operate in June with 11 airlines and a total of 158 weekly frequencies to 15 direct destinations, according to the schedule released by Aeropuertos Uruguay. The program consolidates the regional and international network of the country's main terminal, with Brazil as the fastest-growing market.

• Tuesday, June 2nd 2026 - 10:54 UTC

  Orsi used a campaign-donated car to help pay for his Hyundai, Búsqueda reports

  

  Uruguay's president, Yamandú Orsi, used a vehicle that had been donated to his 2024 election campaign as part of the payment for the Hyundai he bought days before taking office, according to the weekly Búsqueda, which reconstructed the deal from various sources. The car, a Renault Stepway, had been provided by the dealership CarOne during the Frente Amplio's presidential campaign.

• Monday, June 1st 2026 - 05:17 UTC

  Uruguay submits EUR 60 million offer to acquire three Royal Navy used patrol vessels

  

  The Uruguayan government will this week present a formal offer to the United Kingdom's embassy for the acquisition of three used offshore patrol vessels belonging to the British Royal Navy, for an approximate amount of 60 million euros, as announced by the Deputy Secretary of the Presidency, Jorge Díaz. The operation, structured as a direct state-to-state purchase, fits within the administration of President Yamandú Orsi's search to replace the contract terminated with the Spanish shipyard Cardama, in parallel with the hardening of accusations from the Uruguayan executive against the Vigo-based company over the use of public funds transferred.

• Monday, June 1st 2026 - 04:58 UTC

  Uruguayan opposition accuses Orsi of “mocking” public after response on vehicle discount

  

  The main opposition forces of Uruguay coincided on Sunday in questioning the public response of President Yamandú Orsi to the discount of approximately USD 25,000 he obtained in the purchase of a zero-kilometre Hyundai Santa Fe SUV a few days before assuming the presidency on 1 March 2025. The Board of Transparency and Public Ethics (Jutep) will review the transaction after receiving three formal citizen complaints, in an episode that is eroding one of the main political assets of the president, associated with an image of transparency and austerity.

• Saturday, May 30th 2026 - 07:51 UTC

  Uruguayan released in Venezuela slept in his building's hallway after finding home taken by his captor

  

  Uruguayan-Venezuelan citizen José Breijo, 70, on Wednesday recovered the apartment that had been confiscated during his imprisonment in Caracas, after spending several days sleeping in the building's hallway because one of the police officers who had arrested him in 2023 was occupying his home. The case, documented by the AFP news agency, illustrates the pattern of home confiscations denounced by Venezuelan political prisoners and exiled opposition figures during recent years.

• Wednesday, May 27th 2026 - 20:41 UTC

  Uruguay: President Orsi faces questions over purchase of vehicle with USD 25,000 discount

  

  Uruguayan President Yamandú Orsi is this week facing public questioning over the purchase, eight days before his inauguration on 1 March 2025, of a zero-kilometre Hyundai Santa Fe SUV for an invoiced value of USD 54,000, although the model was being offered by the same company at around USD 78,990. The difference, close to USD 25,000, was confirmed by the presidential entourage as a “discount or rebate” on the transaction, without specifying whether it corresponded to a standard commercial policy of the dealership or to a particular condition extended to the then-president-elect.

• Tuesday, May 26th 2026 - 23:13 UTC

  Uruguay signs memorandum with United Kingdom on aerospace, infrastructure, and digital innovation

  

  The Uruguayan government on Monday signed a memorandum of understanding with the United Kingdom to deepen bilateral dialogue and advance cooperation in the aerospace, infrastructure, and digital innovation sectors, in a new step in the rapprochement between the two countries initiated with the visit of Economy and Finance Minister Gabriel Oddone to London in February. The agreement, valid for at least the next four years, was signed between the Uruguayan Ministry of Economy and Finance and the British Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office.

• Monday, May 25th 2026 - 00:44 UTC

  Paraguayan Prosecutor's Office maps Marset drug route from Bolivia to European ports

  

  The Paraguayan Prosecutor's Office has filed an indictment against Gianina García Troche, the former partner of Uruguayan drug trafficker Sebastián Marset, that reconstructs in detail the criminal structure operating from Paraguay that for years moved cocaine from Bolivia to major European ports. The document, cited by the Uruguayan newspaper El País, lays out a three-pronged organization, nearly a thousand clandestine flights inside the Paraguayan Chaco, and a verified export volume amounting to 17,340 kilos of cocaine seized in Belgium and the Netherlands, valued at up to USD 434 million on the European market.

• Saturday, May 23rd 2026 - 02:34 UTC

  Uruguay captures 63% of Mercosur's annual rice quota to the European Union

  

  Uruguay this week filled 63% of the annual zero-tariff rice quota granted by the European Union to Mercosur, in the first significant trade milestone since the provisional entry into force, on 1 May, of the association agreement between the two blocs. The total quota of 6,667 tons for the current year was covered within a few weeks of activity, according to Acting Foreign Minister Valeria Csukasi, in what amounts to one of the first operational tests of the treaty signed on 17 January in Asunción.